It should come as no surprise that on Friday (March 28, 2010) the United States magistrate yesterday rejected a bail application for reggae Mark ‘Buju Banton’ Myrie.
The magistrate also denied a request from lawyers representing Buju for him to be moved to a non-maximum security penal institution.
US magistrate Anthony Porcelli said he would not order Buju's release because he believes there is a high risk he could flee to his home country of Jamaica.
The magistrate also said he would not interfere with the operations at the Pinellas County Jail where Buju is currently being held.
Attorney-at-law David Markus had gone to court claiming that Buju had lost 40 pounds because he was denied the vegetarian diet, a requirement due to his persuasion. Also that his mental and physical health had been rapidly deteriorating.
Marcus claimed Buju had been transferred to a maximum security section of the jail and this was hindering his ability to prepare for his trial, which begins in weeks.
However a federal prosecutor told the court that the claim that Buju was being treated inhumanely was a lie.
Instead the Assistant US Attorney General James Preston presented evidence which showed that Banton gained 11 pounds since being in custody thus disputing the 40 pounds weight loss his lawyers previously stated.
The court was told that Buju was 150 pounds when he was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on January 5, and when he was weighed recently his weight was 161 pounds.
Markus challenged those records, asserting Buju's weight when he was booked was just an estimate.
However a jail official said the numbers were supported by records kept by jail medical staff, who weighed Buju several times during his detention.
Markus complained he hadn't seen the records before the hearing.
According to the prison official, Buju never asked the jail chaplain, who handles such requests, if he could be placed on a vegetarian diet.
The official said he reviewed records of Buju's commissary transactions and found purchases of meat and fish, including chicken, tuna and mackerel.
According to the jail official, he has since directed that Buju be given a vegetarian diet. Markus said Buju gave other inmates the meat he bought in the commissary and had filed a diet request with the chaplain.
The prison official also rejected claims that Buju was being housed in a maximum-security section.
He said Buju was being kept in an older part of the jail where the security arrangements were different, but not punitive, because he argued with a prison official who told him not to give his food away.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Call us miserable but some things really need to be said about the music, it’s been bad for a while and it’s getting worse. In fact, have we already reached the point where all new artists are either generic ex-dancers or ‘i-insert-authentic-Rasta-name’?

It wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that our music is what makes us known around the world: good or increasingly bad. The retarded spectacle of a deejay in tight pants preening onstage with his mantourage burning out gays. It won’t sell and it will get you banned…

We’re embarrassed and so should everybody. And yet the few with talent and originality that manage to breakthrough despite the backward local industry, often end up throwing it all away, like Sizzla after his classic Real Thing album.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Vivian Blake, fabled founder of the notorious Shower Posse, is dead. His lawyer, George Soutar, told The Gleaner that Blake died at the University Hospital of the West Indies Sunday evening.Soutar said he did not know the cause of death, but heard that the 54-year-old Blake was admitted to hospital Saturday with breathing problems.Blake, Soutar added, suffered from kidney disease and had been receiving dialysis.

Blake was deported to Jamaica in January 2009 after serving eight years of a 28-year prison sentence in the United States. In 1999, he was extradited to that country to face multiple racketeering and drug-smuggling charges.After Blake and several members of the Shower Posse were indicted by Federal authorities in 1988, Blake eluded authorities in the US and fled to Jamaica. He struck a deal with the 'Feds' in 1999 and returned to the US one year later.Soutar said he last spoke to Blake on Wednesday."He sounded quite normal, his usual effervescent self. He told me he was working on a movie script (about the Shower Posse)," Soutar said.

The Shower Posse was considered one of the most dangerous gangs in the US during the 1980s. American law enforcement linked them to more than 1,000 murders throughout the country.Blake was born in west Kingston and attended St George's College. He is on record as saying he started the Shower Posse while living illegally in Brooklyn, New York, in the mid-1970s.

Strong JLP tiesThe Shower Posse had strong ties to the Jamaica Labour Party, which formed the Government from late 1980 to early 1989.West Kingston enforcer Lester Lloyd 'Jim Brown' Coke was reputedly a member of the Shower Posse. He was awaiting extradition to the US to face drug charges when he died mysteriously in his jail cell in February 1992.Blake and the Shower Posse have been somewhat romanticised in recent years. Their chilling story has been chronicled in the 2003 book The Shower Posse: The Most Notorious Crime Organisation, written by Blake's son Duane, and as part of Black Entertainment Television's acclaimed American Gangster series.

Lawyers representing reggae superstar Buju Banton have gone to court with a belated attempt to get him released on bail.The lawyers claim that Buju, whose correct name is Mark Myrie, has not been provided with a diet in accordance with his religious views and has lost 40 pounds since being in prison,In documents filed yesterday, the lawyers asked the court to allow a bail hearing for the dancehall star, and if bail is not allowed, to order that he be moved to a non-maximum security unit.Buju, and two alleged co-conspirators, have been in custody in the United States since last December when they were charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine and aiding and abetting the carrying of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.Initially, Buju's lawyers said they would not apply for bail because his US visa had been revoked, and even if released on bond, the dancehall star would remain in custody at an immigration facility.

Recent developments

But in the papers filed in court yesterday, David Markus said recent developments had forced them to apply for bail or alternative relief."We did everything we could to avoid filing the instant motion, but the most recent actions carried out against Mark Myrie require us to seek assistance of this court," Markus said in the emergency motion."Although he had been able to make appropriate meals in the kitchen with food he purchased from the commissary, he does not have that ability in his new maximum security wing."In addition, the living areas and kitchen are unsanitary, and the showers do not work. Because he is being treated inhumanely, we have no choice but to file this motion for bond," added Markus.He said Buju was moved to the maximum security section of the prison last week after he shared his food with a fellow inmate."In sum, Mr Myrie is now in a maximum security wing for caring enough to offer food to another inmate who was hungry, and genuinely believing there was nothing wrong in doing so," said Markus.He argued that the decision to transfer Buju to the maximum security section was affecting him mentally and physically and affecting his ability to prepare for a trial which begins in three weeks.But University of Miami Professor attorney-at-law David Rowe yesterday told The Gleaner that it was highly unlikely that Buju would be granted bail."Buju will not get pre-trial release because he has an immigration hold. The statute makes selling narcotics an aggravated felony for offenders and makes them subject to removal or deportation," Rowe said.The motion is expected to be heard in court this Friday

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Every day there is a debate on how music was much better years ago compared to now. No doubt the luxury of a 5, 10 or even 20 years of time passing could give the listener a more discerning ear. Also when you truly listen to much of what the rhetoric is about, it is becomes clear.

Much of what is revered is mostly a romanticized version of what the song is and or says. It is more centered on feelings and possible experiences that said song(s) was the soundtrack to.

It was Nietzsche who said; “Without music, life would be an error.”

That may be true in some cases, however when it comes to some songs the error is not how to live without them but why were they ever made. This serves as a reminder for everyone that retarded songs are not just the phenomena of contemporary music.

Woman yu ready SOME man a mammal..

Now don't feel that by no means this list is anywhere near done. I couldn't find that song by Fragga Ranks that said something something PAN COOT, or the Caplton that say Stone deh pon mi buddy head. If you think a song needs to be on this list drop mi a comment and we work it out for the next list.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Talked about but rarely seen (last time thanks to a bizarre power outage),DiMaggio: The Last Don will be screened again this Saturday at Moving Mountains, a three day music showcase featuring local and international dance deejays, high up in the Blue Mountains at Strawberry Hill Hotel.

Showtime on our day (Saturday, March 21) is 10:00 pm, hosted by Island boss Chris Blackwell and $1,500 entrance. For Saturday or Sunday a day pass costs up to $5,000 or $8,000 for the weekend, food-inclusive. They’re also offering tickets in a prize draw and not forgetting the menu, just some of it…

Superficially, Jamaicans and Germany are an unlikely combination. But then the Germans could do with a bit of colour and unpredictability and we just need to buy things that work… like BMWs (that test the very limits of vehicle suspension), or free t-shirts from our good German friends at seen.

Last Sunday Tobias Huber and Gabriel Holzner, who run seen., tipped us off about the latest version of their site, which relaunched yesterday, and a new series of Jamaica-inspired t-shirts for Spring 2011. The new site is very clean and robust (they did FIRST also), while the t-shirts themselves are subtle, relying on the strength of their graphic design. Thankfully also, no cheesy overuse of the national colours.

Our favourite from the new collection is the T above, part-inspired by the ‘everyone is a celebrity’ mentality of Kingston nightlife, no matter how overweight or rum-soaked. Nothing makes us feel better than foreign. Meantime the Germans like Jamaica just the same, explains Tobias. Just more strangely…

“There’s this one woman living in Negril hiding from German police after getting involved in the drug business a little too much, there’s this guy in Bluefields who has a weakness for Jamaican girls and who seriously asked us whether we have ‘tried out’ crack yet as it was the shit.

“And there’s that author who knows a damn lot about Jamaican history and politics who is living in Long Bay, and who spent a couple of years in prison for shooting at German police during the RAF years (Cold War-era terrorist group). He is running a guest house now. And there’s that Austrian guy training dangerous dogs in Spanish Town. Dylan also told me about German Town west of Kingston but I have never visited that place so far.”

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Monday, March 8, 2010

Remember when that rumor started about Elephant Man having A.I.D.S.? The last time I checked children don’t come from storks or planes but from unprotected sex. As is, his last child count seems to only be comparable to the time square debt clock. Then you had him playing a supporting role that gave Rosie her Groupie Award last year for her role in the drama How to Raffle a Belly: A love story. This had a number of prominent artists making cameo appearances mentioned for parental ownership. Names like Craig from Voicemail eventually with the aid of modern technology the belly sailed over to the Big Ship. The last time I checked that would mean a number of these artists are having unprotected sex with very questionable vaginas; forget sex workers (i.e. New Kingston prostitutes) the new high risk group in Jamaica are Entertainers.

Friday, March 5, 2010

It’s the weekend people and lots of opportunities to party and enjoy yourselves. However should you step out please ask a real friend for their opinion of your attire just if you don’t own a mirror or have electricity as the following persons who just made the What Tha...?

Monday, March 1, 2010

Just incase you were living under a rock for the past few weeks the mad geniuses over by FirstMagazine are back at it again. I could go on in flowery language and make grand analogies to phoenixes and sleeping giants but are you crazy we are talking about First! All new and web cantered with layout and designs so clean you can eat off it. They spoil us so, because anything near normal, then we would see the definition of jungle justice.

Everything you loved about the First Magazine has been amped up and made even better (was that even possible). Still great articles that cover a wide spectrum of interests from the irrelevant and strange to really important news worthy pieces that never seem to make it on the evening news. However if reading is too much of a chore for you the Girl Fridays’ will sure to keep you revisiting the First site with lots of lotion by your computer.